Junior goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris (30), flanked by junior Noah Welch (5), sophomore Dan Murphy (8) and freshman Steve Mandes (26) struggle to cover the puck in Harvard’s 5-3 loss to Cornell on Saturday night. Grumet-Morris made 17 saves on 22 shots

Try as they might, Harvard’s icemen didn’t complete their first sweep of the season, or earn an elusive win over their arch rival, or erase bad memories of a disappointing first half during this weekend’s home series with Cornell and Colgate.

But at least the Crimson gained something it didn’t have in head coach Mark Mazzoleni’s first four years here: a victory heading into the exam break.

After trailing by three goals before rallying in a 5-3 loss to No. 9 Cornell on Friday, Harvard scored less than three minutes into Saturday’s game with Colgate and won, 3-1. The Crimson, 3-6-1 in its last 10 games, ended the first semester 8-9-2 (6-7-1 ECAC).

“We’re all glad to end on a positive note,” sophomore goaltender John Daigneau said. “It puts you in a good mood.”

The night before Mazzoleni said his team was “manhandled” in the first period against the Big Red (7-3-5, 5-1-2), after which the Crimson trailed 2-0, but that it played “extremely well” in the second and third, when it cut the lead to 4-3 before falling.

On Saturday, Harvard played hard all three periods the way it played the last two against Cornell. The result— not surprisingly—was a victory.

“I thought we played very, very hard for 60 minutes and came out with a hard-earned victory that was badly needed,” Mazzoleni said after Saturday’s win. “It was a step forward for our team, but that’s all that is—a step. We have a long way to go.”

The two games were different in nearly every way.

Harvard never led against Cornell. Harvard never trailed against Colgate.

Harvard has lost five straight to Cornell. Harvard has won five straight against Colgate.

Junior Dov Grumet-Morris was in goal for the Crimson on Friday (17 saves). Daigneau played Saturday (17 saves).

Friday night, Bright Hockey Center was packed with 2,776 people and raucous. The crowd was into the game.

Saturday night, Bright was like a 9 a.m. core lecture (a sparse 1,317) and hushed. The crowd was hanging on every Patriots-Titans update.

The only similarity? Umm, it was cold outside both nights. Really cold.

Cornell 5, Harvard 3

Please, for your own sake, get your eyes checked if you watched the last two Cornell-Harvard games at Bright and didn’t get a sense of déjà vu Friday night.

Last February, the Big Red jumped out to a three-goal lead and watched the Crimson close to within a goal, but won on a game-winning goal resulting from a defensive breakdown.

Friday night, the Big Red jumped out to a three-goal lead and watched the Crimson close to within a goal, but won on a game-winning goal resulting from a defensive breakdown.

“Just like last year,” observed Cornell coach Mike Schafer. “A roller-coaster game.”

It was only after Cornell had staked itself to a 3-0 lead on a goal from Matt Moulson and two from Shane Hynes that Harvard got on the board. About five minutes into the second, senior sharpshooter Tim Pettit one-timed his sixth goal of the year past David McKee (24 saves) on a slick feed from Tyler Kolarik.

But a freak play gave the Big Red a 4-1 lead—and the eventual game-winning goal.

Less than a minute after Pettit’s tally, Crimson captain Kenny Smith went to play the puck in front of the Cornell bench, but in the process got his stick caught between the legs of assistant referee Chip McDonald.

Smith’s stick fell to the ice.

“I lost all sight of the puck,” he admitted. “By the time I figured out where it was, they were on a breakaway.”

With Harvard changing lines, Cornell had a 3-on-0. Grumet-Morris stopped the initial shot by Byron Bitz, but Moulson knocked the rebound off the crossbar and in.

The Big Red appeared in control then, but given the history of this rivalry—10 of the last 15 meetings have been decided by a goal or less—you knew the Crimson would come back.

And it did, beginning with Smith’s redemption on a goal from the point with 1:24 left in the second. Sophomore defenseman Tom Walsh made it 4-3 early in the third on his first goal of the season, but Moulson completed his second career hat trick at 9:02.

Cornell had kept the puck in the Harvard zone for more than a minute before Moulson’s goal, staying over the puck and not allowing the Crimson to clear.

“That’s their game,” Mazzoleni said.

Harvard 3, Colgate 1

As the Crimson learned Saturday, nothing takes away the sting of a tough loss like an ugly, hard-working win. Each of Harvard’s four lines hustled, and each of them generated scoring chances to sweep the season series with Colgate for the second straight year.

Every Crimson goal was scored in gritty fashion. Junior Rob Flynn had the first, 2:38 into the game. He took advantage of a juicy rebound off the stick of new linemate Kevin Du to score his first goal since Nov. 25.

Senior winger Dennis Packard, who had five goals in the first seven games of the season but hasn’t scored since, finished another rebound goal midway through the second. Classmate Rob Fried (two points) finished the scoring on a 2-on-1 with 1:07 left in the third when a pass from junior Brendan Bernakevitch (two points) bounced off his skate and into the goal.

No one was confusing this for swift-skating, crisp-passing Billy Cleary hockey, but it was enough to win. And for this struggling Crimson team, that’s all that matters.

“We have to score workmanlike goals,” Mazzoleni said. “Our team realizes who they are, and what they have to do to be successful. Now they have to continue to understand how hard they have to play.”

Daigneau allowed a goal on Colgate’s first shot on net—Jon Smyth’s slapper from the right circle at 9:53 of the first—but was flawless for the rest of the evening. Mazzoleni said he thought Daigneau “played steady,” which wasn’t a heavy task given the superb effort of Harvard’s defense. The Raiders (9-8-3, 4-4-0) had 18 shots on goal. Only five came in the third.

“I don’t think we gave them a lot,” Mazzoleni said. “I thought we played real hard defensively and took away their space.”

—Staff writer Jon Paul Morosi can be reached at morosi@fas.harvard.edu.